a-new-grittier-spy-museum-lets-dc-visitors-explore-waterboarding-and-enhanced-interrogation

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/a-new-grittier-spy-museum-lets-dc-visitors-explore-waterboarding-and-enhanced-interrogation
MY COMMENT:

Enhanced Interrogation Techniques, or EIT, were approved and LEGAL when performed on a "handful" of unlawful combatant detainees being held at the US military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in the early 2000's. None of these methods were administered by any DoD personnel. Only the CIA were trained and authorized to perform these lawful procedures.

At the time, the internationally accepted definition of torture did not cover these techniques, nor were any of the techniques defined as torture at the time they were used. Only AFTER the program had ended did President Barack Obama unilaterally declare them torture, still without a definition of torture that included the techniques.

I'm wondering how clear the display is that no detainees were tortured at Gitmo, nor by any DoD personnel, including the Army Military Police jailers, who with very few exceptions, treated every detainee with dignity and respect and within the limits of the spirit of the Geneva Conventions, even though these unlawful combatants were not legally entitled to the protections of Geneva.

I'm wondering if the display makes clear that the detainees could have been lawfully shot dead on the battlefield? I'm wondering if the display mentions that the detainees were (and still are) given FREE Qurans, prayer rugs/beads, directions to Mecca, white robes, halal and special holy Muslim holiday meals, world class health, dental and vision care, recreation, Library, DVD's, TV, video games and sports?

I'm wondering if the display mentions that 732 detainees have been RELEASED, with a recidivism rate of 30%, and NONE of the detainees held at Gitmo were ever executed, beheaded, blown up, hacked to death, dragged naked and lifeless through the streets, drowned or burned alive, all things our enemies have done to us and/or our allies?

Probably not.

While I served at Gitmo in early to mid 2002, International Committee of the Red Cross physicians I worked with there told me, "No one does [detention operations] better than the US." Indeed. I wonder if they would put that in the display?
Sincerely, MAJ (RET) Montgomery J. Granger, former ranking US Army Medical Department officer with the Joint Detainee Operations Group, Joint Task Force 160, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Author: "Saving Grace at Guantanamo Bay: A Memoir of a Citizen Warrior."